Thursday, April 11, 2013

Friday Fun: Mo' Moonshine, Mo' Polymer

Blog Bait (n) - A pithy graphic just begging to be discussed on the chemblogsphere...

Straight from the pages of ACIEE comes the latest from the Nuckolls group: ROAMP, or metathesis polymerization of strained cyclic alkynes (Schweeet!)

NMR kinetic studies indicate that the active molybdenum catalyst, initially trapped in a dimer, can be broken apart just enough by methanol to make polyalkynes. This procedure even works in the presence of air, water, or phenolic additives - usually catalytic death knells.

Kudos to Nuckolls' group, but their coup de grace may in fact be the accompanying cover graphic, below. Your eyes do not deceive you: they compare their sexy new reaction to a steaming copper moonshine still, hidden deep in the woods.

See Arr Oh

Who is this masked chemist?

Finding my way through new challenges.
I was a founding blogger at Scientific American's Food Matters and Blog Syn. I once wrote for C&EN's The Haystack. I've written for Nature Chemistry, Newscripts, Chemistry Blog, Chemjobber, and Totally Synthetic.